Prominet elder goes against the society's advice on education!!!

by Samuel Thorsen 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Samuel Thorsen

  I just wat to inform you that I have from absolutely trustworthy sources that Rolf Furuli (one of the absolutely best known and most recpected elders in Norway, and altso a scolar known as a hard core 607-apologist among opposers) did have a local needs speech last week (or maybe the week before) where he went directly against the Watchtower anti college education pollicy and warmly recomended all the young ones in the congregation to go on and get them self educated.

  I wonder for how long ha can keep his position?? If he gets the boot wee'll se a theocratic earthquake here in Norway.
• 

  Bonnie_Clyde

  I know a local elder who is getting a lot of flack for letting his son go to college, and I'm sure there are plenty more. But for someone to actually give a local needs talk. That's fantastic? They probably will give him the boot though. Let us know what happens.....
• 

  quietlyleaving

  that is interesting Samuel - was the local needs item about college education specificallly or did he just slip in a brief thought about getting an education?
• 

  Samuel Thorsen

  Ql

  I'll try to get more accurate info, but as far as my present understanding goes the speech was dedicated to the subject of higher education.
• 

  slimboyfat

  Did the other elders know he was going to go pro-education or did he spring it on them? I am inclined to think it should not be a surprise to them that someone who works at a university should be pro-education. So did they discuss how it was going to be handled beforehand?

  Although the Witness literature has been very anti-education in recent years I think there may still be scope for some liberal Witnesses to argue out of a corner that pursuing further education is permitted as long as one has the right "motives" for doing so. There is a brother I know locally (not an elder or anything) who encourages young ones to go to university and insists that those who blanket condemn it are miscontruing what "the Society" have said.

  I wonder how Furuli felt about the Sept 2007 KM which pretty much slammed books of the type on Bible translation and chronology he has been writing in recent years. Has he finally got fed up with the mind control and is his local needs talk intended as some sort of stand?

  I think it is very hard for people like Furuli to remain Witnesses in the long run.

  Slim
• 

  Emma

  When I lived in Central PA, an elder in my cong was removed for letting his son go to college. He was the most prominent elder in the cong, bethel connections, but the country elders determined he was going against the society and remove him. His oldest daughter had given up a full ride to Radcliffe to pioneer; maybe he saw what a waste that was and how different her life could have been.
• 

  choosing life

  There seem to be many witnesses in this area who attend university. I know of one who is starting medical school and another entering graduate school. They don't seem to be catching any flack.

  Maybe it's the difference in congregation elders. Interesting to have a well known elder go against the society's stand on the podium. Thanks for posting this.
• 

  garybuss

  I remember a Witness company servant once told me to go on in school. Of course, I was in the second grade. The company man had a one pony rodeo painting business out of the back of a 1948 Chevy panel truck with a limp clutch pedal. He wasn't a failure, he just started on the bottom and liked it there.
  
  
  
• 

  willyloman

  Dubs now go to college in ever larger numbers, which is precisely why the WTS has reversed its stance on higher ed. Back in the early 90s they softened up and agreed going to college might be a necessary thing; of course, they attached the "but only to support your spiritual goals" caveat, but many dubs did not read past the part where it said it's no one else's business if you choose to get an education. So, today, they are taking a hardline approach to try to get the pendulum to swing back. Won't happen.

  In this, as in other things, the dubs draw closer and closer to the mainstream - but not in a straight line, of course. Like the Catholics they openly despise, they are increasingly seeing the rank and file pick and choose from among the official church doctrines. They are fond of saying that JWs are citizens of a new "nation." What they failed to foresee is that, if the nation's government imposes an unpopular law (think Prohibition or the 55 mph speed limit), the citizens will just ignore it and go on their merry way.
• 

  Alpaca

  The Borg's opposition to higher education in the 20th Century is no different than the Catholic church's war on knowledge during the dark ages and the early years of the renaissance.

  The Borg absolutely fears large numbers of educated minds among the R & F, because they know how vulnerable their goofy doctrines and flawed arguments are to being critically analyzed. If there is one single theme that is stressed in all University education curricula, whether it is science courses or liberal arts programs, it is the importance of learning to think critically.

  The bottom line is that, if some set of beliefs (whether it is some scientific theory or an understanding of some set of facts) is the "truth" it should withstand the scrutiny of critical analysis. However the Borg leadership know that critical analysis and the application of Occam's razor to their doctrines would fatally shred the Borg's convoluted and contorted interpretation of world events and purported Bible chronology in our times.

  Over the course of nearly 40 years of involvement with the Borg, I saw many really intelligent individuals leave the Borg, and I believe that pattern is accelerating. The Borg is sowing the seeds of their own demise by opposing higher education; they are going to end up as organization of dim-witted, poor, unmotivated, pathetic losers, who will have few resources to finance the future needs of the Borg. The Borg is well on the way. There was a time when they paid lip service to education by encouraging publishers to do independent research in secular publications, but that disappeared long ago.

  The crux of their teachings, 1914, is an increasingly tenuous foundation for this time being the last days. They can't decide who the memorial partakers should be. Increasingly, the Borg stands for absolutely nothing.